Mrs N’s Notes ~ 7.9.18
WE’RE NEVER HAPPY AT KIRKSHAWS!
What?? Let me read that again…Did you really say that?
I did! However, whenever you pop in you will see loads of smiles, grins, giggles and laughter. What I mean is, we’re never satisfied with the way things are. We’re not content to sit back and coast along for a day or two. I fact, I can’t see us ever being in a position where we will be happy to stop and say, “We’ve achieved it all!”
IMPROVEMENT is the key word for us at the moment. Not change for the sake of it, but assessing all aspects of our daily practice to ensure we are getting it right for every child, family and staff member of the Kirkshaws team.
This week we saw the opening of our new Literacy Hub and the Launch of the Hub Club. Martin Bell, our CLD worker, was delighted to meet the families who came along. Martin will be in the Hub every Monday from 2.30pm and each Tuesday morning for an hour before school. Families can come along and make use of our lending library, but Martin will also have fun games and activities with a literacy focus for the children to work on. The improvements in the library environment have been the focus of a lot of positive conversations I have had, but we are not finished yet. Our team of Library Volunteers (a group of retired librarians) continue to organise and reclassify our book stock. With the books reorganised, we can already see where we have gaps in topics or popular authors. Throughout the session we will be looking to address this.
Our Parent Council met on Monday evening. For anyone who is unsure of what this is, let me put your mind at rest. A small group of parents meet in the staff room for an hour (with a cuppa if you like) and discuss how we can work together for the benefit of the school. I give a report, which this time was based on our School Improvement Report for last session and our School Improvement Plan for the coming year. I was also able to give an update on issues like staffing, our current roll and improvements in our security arrangements. Mr Sharp gave an update on a Lottery Bid he is working on. In response to requests from parents, he is trying to organise a new trim-trail to improve the playtime experience for our pupils. No-one is put under any pressure to contribute; you would never be put on the spot. If you would like to know more about what is going on ‘behind the scenes’, grab a friend and pop into the next meeting.
The school photographer was in school too this week. After consulting the Parent Council, I was keen to try something new this year and I am confident you will be happy with the final result. So far we have had a positive response from those parents who were there on the day. Hopefully you will agree with me that the photos this year are different, but still capture that moment in time you will treasure for a long time to come.
I met with my Self Improving Schools group this week. This is a group of schools, not from Coatbridge, but from other areas in our local authority. Each month I meet with Head Teachers who work in schools of a similar size to Kirkshaws. In this way, I can ensure that we are keeping up with expectations and targets across the authority. There is no use in us working away in isolation in Kirkshaws. We need to be looking at what is going on in education across Scotland to make sure we are at the top of our game!
That same afternoon, Mrs Harkness began working with a new group who are looking at the quality of teaching in every school across North Lanarkshire. Mrs Harkness will be our link person, leading this initiative in Kirkshaws. However, she tells me she has lots of homework to do already…and plenty of tasks to bring back to our teachers to ensure we are all aiming to improve the learners’ experience across our school. A busy few months ahead.
Mr Gall held trials for the school football team this year. After a fabulous season last year, it will be hard for us to improve on those achievements, however we have a great squad of boys and girls who are aiming to do just that! Believe…Achieve…Succeed. They will play their first match next week, so everyone is training hard!
And then, on Friday, we held our first Pupil Voice Assembly of the year. Every fifth week we plan to change our Assembly format and allow all pupils to meet in smaller groups and have their say in how they see our school improvements making a difference to them. This worked well last year, but we have changed the organisation this session in an attempt to give more pupils the opportunity to take part. This week we were all reviewing the House System we run in school. Yip, you guessed it…How can we build on this great idea, but IMPROVE it to make more people involved? As always, our pupils have many ideas that we will try to implement over the coming months.
So, as you can see … We are never happy to sit back and accept second best here in Kirkshaws! There’s always room for improvement!
